Things Look Bleak
by AgentDMC
Summary: Tie Dye and Tina receive a case about a sick mare. However, when the disease starts to spread, Tie Dye begins to worry about Tina's safety, and the safety of everyone else in Ponyville. Sequel to Time Flies.
1. A New Disease

I was pacing the library out of sheer boredom and lack of investigations. Boredom was making my mind numb when the first pony walked in. I stopped my pacing when I saw the stallion, and walked behind my desk.

"I have a problem." The stallion said.

"Well obviously, that's why you're here at a private investigator's office." I said as though this was common information.

The stallion rolled his eyes and said, "My wife has turned gray and is acting strange."

I stroked my chin with one of my hooves and said, "All right, my assistant and I will check it out." So the stallion gave me his address and I went to get Tina after the stallion had left.

I arrived at Tina's without delay, and we both went to the address that I was given. It was pretty close to Tina's house, so we didn't have to walk much of a distance. The stallion had a nice house, windows and everything.

We walked up to the door and knocked. After being greeted by the stallion, we were let inside. Once in the house, I could hear some angry yelling coming from upstairs.

"She's up there." The stallion said while pointing to the stairs. Tina and I both thanked him as we walked up the stairs. The screaming grew more intense as we went further and further up. We came upon the door that the screaming could be heard from and I opened the door. Tina and I walked inside and saw a mare rolling around on the floor. The first noticeable thing about this mare was that she was completely gray.

I walked up to her and asked, "How are you feeling madam?"

"Awful!" She shouted in response. After my ears had stopped ringing from the extremely loud shout, I felt her forehead. It was burning. I felt her back, also burning. Her stomach was burning as well.

"This mare has an extreme fever, but fevers don't turn a pony gray, at least no form of the fever that I know of." I mumbled.

"How do you know that she isn't naturally gray?" Tina asked me.

I pointed to the mares cutie mark and said, "Her cutie mark has become gray as well. I'm no expert on cutie marks, but as far as I know there are no known gray cutie marks."

"So what does it mean?"

"For now, I don't know. I'll need to think about this." I saw a picture of the mare on one side of the room. In the picture, she was still colorful and she looked quite happy. I grabbed the photo and put it into one of my pockets. Tina and I then left the house and walked back to my office.

Once there, I hung the picture up on a board and began to study it. I sat there for hours trying to understand what the difference was. I just couldn't get it, so I decided to go back to the stallion's house.

As I approached the house, I could hear louder screaming. In fact, it sounded like the screaming was coming from two voices. I ran to the house and barged through the door. On the floor was the stallion, and something was noticeably different about him; the stallion had also turned gray.

I found a picture of the stallion and grabbed it. After putting it in my pocket, I went upstairs to check on the mare, and saw her lying there, still screaming. However, the screaming was growing quieter within time. I could even notice some color coming back into her. This was getting more confusing the further into the case I got. How could this mare be completely sick and grey one minute, and then it spread to her husband the next while the mare gets better in minutes?

Deciding not to be the one to explain this situation to the mare, I left the house and went back to my office. I hung the picture of the stallion on the board next to the one of the mare. I studied the two pictures and tried to find out what the similarities were between the two. All I could come up with was that they were married. I could've come to a better conclusion if I had more information on the two, but I had none whatsoever.

All I knew was that whatever had infected that mare, spread to her husband and left her alone. I began to wonder what kind of disease could do that, but I couldn't think of anything. All I could do was watch this disease spread further, as much as I didn't like it, and gather more information.


	2. A Second Opinion

It was the day after I realized that the disease had started. I was in my office, studying the pictures, when the mare walked in with her husband. Each of them seemed to have gotten their color back.

"I would like to thank you for helping us." The mare said.

"I didn't do anything; this disease seems to leave its victims and then move on to the next target. This disease is smarter than we think." I told them.

"While we are grateful, we have another problem." The stallion said.

"What's going on now?" I asked.

"Our friend has been infected with the same thing that infected us." The stallion told me.

"So it's still spreading, and just like before, it left its past victims alone." I mumbled to myself. "Bring me to your friend and I'll see what I can do."

So they led me out of my office and to their friend's house. They let me into the house, and I saw a stallion on the ground with the same symptoms that the other ponies had.

After I had grabbed a photo of the infected stallion, I said, "There's nothing I can do right now. I'm sorry." Then I left.

Once back at my office, I hung the photo of the newly infected pony on my board. "What's the secret?" I questioned myself. "What is the disease doing, how is it spreading?"

I then got the idea to go and visit Twilight. She had so many books that she had to know something about what was going on. So I left my office and walked over to the library.

I knocked on the door and Twilight answered quite quickly. "Come on in." She said.

I walked in and asked her, "Have you heard about this disease spreading around Ponyville?"

"What disease?" She asked.

I began to look through books as I calmly answered, "Ponies will turn grey and lie on the ground, screaming."

"How come I haven't heard about this?"

"I guess it's being kept on a low profile so as not to make anypony panic. Do you happen to know anything about this disease?"

"I do know that there's only one creature that can turn ponies grey, Discord."

"Last I heard, Discord was still in a stone form. How could he do that if he's still trapped?"

"I don't know, but what else can explain this disease?"

I smirked, but hid it with a book while I thought; _she's quick to jump to conclusions._ "I don't know, but it seems like this is a bit different than what Discord does. For instance, the disease spreads from one pony to the next, but leaves the past victims almost as soon as it spreads. Plus, the infected ponies don't act the opposite of how they normally do, just mad, maybe even psychotic."

Twilight thought it over before saying, "That does sound different, but there can be no other explanation." She then ran out of the library to go who knows where.

"I guess that I'll just check a book out myself." I said before looking around the shelves for some kind of book. I didn't find anything interesting, so I left. I was nice and locked the door behind me.

Back at my office, I looked at the photos and began to think over the connections between the ponies once again. This time the connections were a married couple and their friend. They all knew each other, but that's as far as I could get. Whatever the real connection was, I just couldn't find it. Maybe if the disease spreads a little further, I could start to see it. I still didn't like it, but I would have to wait this out just a while more.


	3. The Plan

The disease was still going around Ponyville after two more days. The princesses were notified, but were being kept in Canterlot to avoid infection. They had their best people working on this situation, but I had no doubt that they would have less luck than I did.

I had ten more pictures hung up on my board of other ponies that became infected. They all knew each other, but the connection was only from one pony to the next. The connections were becoming clearer, but I still couldn't figure it out just yet. Pacing around the room, I continued to think about the connections. I thought about how they all knew each other and how they were either friends, married, or in a relationship.

And then it hit me. The answer to this whole thing, I figured out the connections. I knew what was causing the disease to spread.

The answer to everything was positive feelings.

This disease was using positive feelings to spread. The more somepony likes somepony else the faster the disease will spread to that pony. But there had to be more than that. If it had a goal, then why wouldn't it just jump to a specific pony? There had to be more than just positive feelings.

And then I began to think; this is the perfect place for this disease to spread. Everypony around here is friends with someone. Everypony knows someone here. This disease has picked the best area that it could. But this couldn't be the only reason that it picked this area. There had to be some more connections that I was missing.

Then another thing hit me. If everyone was going to get infected eventually, Tina would be put in harm's way. I couldn't let that happen, but I didn't know how to combat this disease just yet.

So I thought about the symptom, negativity. And how do you combat negativity; with complete positivity. I had to wait for the disease to spread to her before I could save her.

Then I began to think of a way to stop this disease. I avoided making many relationships, so I didn't think that disease could spread to me from anyone besides Tina. I didn't know who it would spread to from me, but I knew that I could stop it or at least stall it.

When the disease infected me, I would go to a secluded area on my own. Hopefully I could cope with the disease and eventually be able to move around while infected. If I stayed near an area where I knew nobody, then the disease would hopefully not be able to spread.

I had a plan all set up, but I had to get Tina to agree with it. I also had to find a way to help the other ponies before anything too bad happens.

**A/N: Sorry about the short chapter, just wanted to set up a plan. Things are going to get a lot better, so please bear with me. And to the guest who posts reviews under the letter E, thanks for the reviews by the way, you're good. I feel like my chapters have to shoot down some of your theories. Anyway, everything is going to get better. AgentDMC out.**


	4. 5 Out of 6

A few days later and nearly half of Ponyville had been infected by this disease. Everypony was calling it the Discord disease because it would turn you grey. However, I called it the Negativity.

Anyway, I was sitting in my office, just minding my own business, when Twilight walked in.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her.

She looked at me with worry in her eyes as she said, "Rainbow Dash has been infected by the Discord disease.

So Twilight led me to where Rainbow Dash was being kept. I tried to explain to her that it was useless and that the disease would just leave her after a while, but she wouldn't listen to me.

Twilight brought me to the library and let me inside. Once in there, I found a gray version of Rainbow Dash rolling around on the ground screaming.

"It's the same symptoms that everypony else had. This means that the disease will leave her body soon." I told Twilight.

"Isn't there anyway that we can get it out of her any sooner?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know any ways to help you yet. I'm still working on a plan to fix this." And with that, I walked out of the library and back to my office.

Not even ten minutes later and Twilight was back.

"I already told you, there's nothing I can do for Rainbow Dash." I told her before she said anything.

"It's different this time," Twilight said, "Applejack has been infected."

I got up from my chair and began to pace the room. "Move Applejack here into my office, then go and gather your other friends and bring them here. I'll monitor them and watch how the disease moves from pony to pony."

Twilight nodded and ran out of my office. She came back later with the rest of the mane six. Applejack looked like the effects were just about to wear off.

"The disease is about to transfer!" I said. "Everypony hide behind something!" We all hid behind something as Applejack began to convulse. Then a gray mist flew out of her mouth and hovered around the room before flying straight into Pinkie Pie. Her hair began to straighten as she turned grey and fell onto the floor. Applejack was regaining some color and began to stand up.

The others ran over to her while I studied Pinkie Pie. "Fascinating," I said, "the disease spreads through the air in a gaseous form. I wonder how far it can travel without a host in between."

"Could you focus?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We're kind of in the middle of a situation."

"There are some more important problems going around, dear." Rarity said.

"This information could be a breakthrough for this case." I said. "Unless neither of you want me to figure out what's going on here." Both mares didn't reply to that, so I continued to study Pinkie Pie.

After ten minutes of Pinkie's screaming, she began to convulse. "Here we go again." I said, somewhat excitedly. The mist flew out of Pinkie Pie's mouth and towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy then became gray and fell to the floor. Surprisingly, the loud and angry shouts never came. Instead, there were very silent wails, as though somepony was silently sobbing into a tissue.

"This is different." I said to no pony in particular. After the negativity left Fluttershy, it flew into Rarity. After nearly ten minutes of it infecting Rarity, we all waited for it to fly out and infect Twilight. However, once it did leave Rarity, if flew through one of my walls to infect someone else.

"This is strange," I said, "instead of infecting Twilight, it went to infect somepony else. Now why would it completely skip Twilight?"

"Maybe there's some reason why it skipped me." Twilight said.

"I know it jumps from pony to pony depending on how positive they feel towards each other, but there must be something else that we're missing, another factor that we must be missing."

Then it hit both of us and we shouted the answer at the same time, "Intelligence and skill!"

"The disease will use positive energy as a road…" I began.

"And the intelligence and skill of a pony is the wall that blocks it!" Twilight finished. We both looked quite happy with ourselves for figuring this out. After a while of thinking, the mane six left me alone in my office.

The last thing that I thought about was who would be the pony to get infected before Twilight.


	5. Putting the Plan Into Action

It had been days. All of Ponyville had been quarantined. No one was allowed in or out until this disease blows over. Almost the whole population had been infected by now, and there were only five of us left, Twilight, Tina, and I included. By this point, I had figured that Tina would get infected soon. I stayed near her at all times, keeping an eye out for the mist of negativity that would soon come for her.

I began to think it wouldn't come for her for a while, until one day I saw it flying towards us. We tried to run, I tried to stop it, but Tina became infected. When she fell to the ground, I picked her back up. I embraced her in a hug to try and overpower the negativity that was located inside of her. It didn't work, so I did something that I never thought that I would do. I kissed her.

As we kissed, I could feel the negativity spread into me. By the time I pulled away, she had gained her color back, plus a bright red blush, and I had lost mine. I still had some control for the time being, I guess that the negativity was weaker from two quick transfers.

"I'm going to be on the outskirts of Canterlot. Only come for me if you really need me." I said.

"But how will you get past the quarantine?" Tina asked me.

"I run, and I don't stop. I don't stop running until I reach my destination." I turned around and began to run. I needed to get as close to my destination as I could before the negativity took over.

Guards yelled at me as I ran past the quarantine. I didn't stop running, and they eventually gave up on me. Around halfway there, I could feel the negativity spreading. I figured I was far enough away from a location where anypony had positive feelings for me. Canterlot was a great choice because nearly everypony there hated me, and the ones who didn't have no clue who I was.

Finally, I fell to the ground and began to shout. However, my mind was left wide open for me to think. I hoped that I could live with this disease for a while and eventually gain control again.

What felt like weeks was only one day. The disease eventually lost control and I began to walk closer to Canterlot. Along the way I thought about the disease. I was one of the last to get infected, so the last target in Ponyville must be Twilight. With this theory standing, I had to avoid Twilight. I guessed that the negativity would use me as a way to get to Twilight. The question was; who would be targeted after Twilight?

I finally reached what I thought was a good distance towards Canterlot and a good enough distance away from Ponyville. I set up a basic shelter for the time being and flopped onto the ground to get some rest.

* * *

The next time that I was conscious, I couldn't move. My senses came back and I could see that I was writhing on the ground and I could hear myself screaming. I didn't panic however, because I knew what was going on. However, I felt like I had less room to think. Maybe the Negativity was taking me over little by little. I had to figure out a way to fight this disease just in case it was able to take over me.

Eventually I regained control and looked around. My stomach began to growl, so I walked into Canterlot to buy some food. Nobody turned down my business, but everyone looked at me with strange looks. Probably because it looked like I was discorded.

I went back to my shelter and ate some of the food that I had grabbed. Then I began to think of what this all meant. If I could combat the Negativity and be myself at all times, I would have to live an isolated life. No mysteries, no social interaction, and no talks with Tina. It would just be me, alone at my shelter for the rest of my days.

But then I perked myself up. No need to be negative with negativity literally living inside of me. At least if anyone remembered this, I would be remembered as a hero. All that I had to do was stay away from Twilight and contain this stupid disease.

**A/N: Another short chapter, I know. Thanks again to the guest for giving me some ideas, which I used. That's all I really wanted to say, AgentDMC out.**


	6. One Little Slip

I was only a few days into my plan when I began to get found out. Word had spread from Ponyville that a gray pony had escaped from the quarantine. Canterlot had begun to become wary of all the gray ponies that were visiting. I ventured there less and less, but I knew that I would be discovered soon enough.

On one of my trips to get some food, somepony shouted out, "There he is, the escapee." I was suddenly surrounded by random ponies as they tried to grab me. I broke out of the circle and began to run away. I could hear the sounds of hooves as I was chased. I looked around as I ran and tried to find a way out of this. I saw something that I thought could help me, a painter with cans of paint. Lucky for me, the painter was carrying a can of gray paint and a can of blue paint.

I ran towards the painter and tipped the cans over, the gray one on him and the blue one on me. Each one of the paint cans covered most of our bodies, so I expected to be ok for a while. Meanwhile, I could hear the ponies that were chasing me now chasing the painter. I grabbed some food and walked back to my shelter.

It was then that things became even worse.

Only minutes after I had gotten back to my shelter Tina began to walk over to me. _Not now!_ I thought as she approached. _With the alert up she'll draw attention to me and get me caught._

She came closer and smiled as she reached my shelter. "How did you get past the quarantine?" I asked her.

Tina pointed to her horn and said, "I teleported out, but I didn't come alone." Then Twilight stepped out from behind her. "She came to check and see if the disease had dispersed yet.

I fought the Negativity from leaving my body while I said, "Well I still am infected so you two can leave now."

"But we just got here." Twilight said. "And you seem to be in better condition than the others who were infected."

I gritted my teeth as I said, "For now, besides we don't know if the disease is contained inside of me." Even though I did know what the answer was. Not taking any of my hints, both Tina and Twilight sat down and tried to talk to me. Before long, I could feel the negativity begin to take over and I put my head on the ground as the two talked.

Tina noticed and said, "Are you ok?"

I tried to nod, but all my head did was shiver. "I'm fine; I'm just tired from all the running and hiding I've been doing." My statement wasn't actually a lie. Within minutes of me saying this, I fell asleep.

* * *

I woke up and the two mares were still there. "Glad to see that you're awake." Tina said.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and said, "What are you two still doing here?"

"We didn't think it would be nice to leave you here alone." Twilight answered.

After falling asleep, I was able to look at Twilight without forcing control over the negativity. I guess that the rest was all that I needed.

"I'm going into Canterlot to get some extra food. You two stay here and don't mess anything up." I said. The mares nodded their heads in agreement and went into a conversation about books and mysteries and such. As I walked away I was sure that I could hear my name mentioned a few times.

I walked into Canterlot and began to go and grab some more food. I quickly obtained some and went back to the shelter, all the while avoiding meeting eyes with anypony. The walk back to the shelter was calm, and I enjoyed the peace. I didn't normally get any peaceful moments, so when I did, I kept it that way for as long as I could.

When I got back to the shelter, I could some kind of tension in the air. The mares looked like they had been in an argument or something close to that, but I decided to leave that alone.

"Why don't I start making us something to eat?" I asked. Each mare nodded their head, but wouldn't look at each other.

I grabbed some bread and put some hay and flowers on them, making sandwiches. I then prepared some carrots to eat on the side. When all of that was done, we sat down to eat. However, the air was filled with some kind of negativity, and the negativity inside of me was beginning to wake up again.

Throughout the meal, the two mares kept shooting each other glances. I was able to finish my meal before the negativity became too strong. I fell to the ground and began to shake.

I tried to tell them to run, but all that came out of my mouth was a squeak.

"Look what you did!" Tina shouted at Twilight.

"What did I do?" Twilight questioned.

"Your magic must be increasing the strength of the disease!"

"You're a unicorn as well!"

"My magic isn't as strong as yours is!"

"Maybe you're just being too negative and it's strengthening the disease!"

"Run." I finally managed to whisper. Each mare turned to me but they didn't seem to get the hint. All they could do was watch as my body began to convulse and a gray mist flew out of my mouth. The mist went straight for Twilight and quickly took her over. I regained my color as Twilight's was drained. I unsteadily stood up on my hooves as Tina ran over to support me.

"You've stalled me for long enough, Tie Dye." Twilight said. Her voice sounded strange, as though the disease was speaking for her. "It's time to proceed with my plans." Then Twilight's horn began to channel magic until it was glowing brightly. A beam was fired out of the horn and towards the castle. The beam was completely gray and the gray was slowly drained from Twilight as the beam was fired.

When all of Twilight's color had returned, she collapsed to the ground. Tina and I ran over to her and helped her up.

"What happened?" Twilight asked as she rubbed her head.

I looked over at the castle and said, "I don't know, but we should go find out." I began to walk towards Canterlot, but turned my head to face the two mares and said, "By the way, whatever it was that you two were arguing about, you should probably makeup with each other so we can have positive feelings on our side in this."

The two mares gave each other wary looks, apologized to each other, and then began to follow me into Canterlot.


	7. Splitting Up

We approached Canterlot castle without anyone trying to stop us. We were a strange looking bunch however, two unicorns and an earth pony. On top of that, one of us was covered in paint, and another one of us looked like a mess.

The castle looked the same; the beam hadn't seemed to do any damage to the castle whatsoever. "Is everypony ready?" I asked before we walked in. Both mares nodded their heads with determined looks. I took a deep breath, and then took the first step into the castle.

Nothing looked like it had changed, so that seemed to be good at least. However, it was still unknown whether the disease had infected the princesses or not. Until this information was known, we would all have to be extremely careful. I took the lead with both mares flanking me.

We quickly approached the throne room without a hitch, but before we walked in I said, "We haven't seen a single guard on the way here. Something must have happened, something that just can't be good. It's going to be dangerous in there, maybe I should go in alone."

Tina shook her head and said, "There's strength in numbers Tie Dye. We're coming with you."

Twilight said, "Yeah, besides, we're both unicorns, we won't let anything happen to you in there."

I smiled at them before turning to Tina and saying, "I'm going to need to borrow your bracelets for this." She looked confused but she nodded and handed me her bracelets. I put them in one of my pockets and made sure that I had the hourglass necklace and the sand with me, just in case anything went wrong.

"Let's do this." I said before throwing the doors to the throne room open. Inside were two figures, each taller than the average pony.

Once we recognized one of the figures, Twilight mumbled, "It can't be."

"But it is!" The figure said. It was Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna's alter ego. Equipped with blue armor, Nightmare Moon was a chaotic force to be reckoned with. The only known way to stop her was by using the elements of harmony on her.

The other figure turned around and it was obviously Princess Celestia, but with an equally as obvious difference. She was completely gray.

"You're too late." The Princess said in the same voice Twilight had used earlier. "My plans are already in motion." And with that the Princess turned around and began to cast a spell.

"Twilight, try to interrupt the spell!" I shouted. Twilight nodded and began to charge some magic into her horn.

"No you don't!" Nightmare Moon shouted in response. She blasted a beam at Twilight and Tina.

"They've drained our magic!" Tina shouted. I gritted my teeth as I watched the Negative Celestia continue to charge the spell.

"I've got a plan!" I shouted.

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"If I told elaborated you would just say no." I responded.

"Then don't do it!" Tina added.

"I'm doing it anyway!" I shouted as I charged Negative Celestia. Nightmare Moon tried to fire a beam of magic at me, but I ducked it and continued running. It's a good thing to, when that beam hit the ground there was a hole that was just my size. I gritted my teeth as I jumped at the surprised Negative Celestia and as I landed on her back. She was so startled that the spell was fired early. A portal was opened where the beam landed. Tentacles came out from the portal and grabbed Negative Celestia and me.

"Get together the other elements of harmony!" I shouted as I was getting pulled into the portal. "Don't worry about me, I may not be a unicorn, but I have my own magic!" And with that I was pulled into the portal.

Tina and Twilight gave each other the same look that said, 'Is he really gone?' The moment was cut short when Nightmare Moon laughed and said, "Now that he's gone, I can get to work with my part of the plan."

Twilight and Tina both looked at each other before turning to the doors and running through them, on their way to get the other elements of harmony.

* * *

Meanwhile, I was in the portal with Negative Celestia. This vortex was like the one that I was in with the hourglass. Considering this was the Negativities playing field, I decided to even things out. I pulled the hourglass necklace out from around my neck and grabbed the phial of sand out of one of my pockets. I put the sand into the hourglass and then pulled out Tina's bracelets. The time vortex enveloped half of the negative vortex.

"It looks as though I've leveled the playing field." I said.

"Not quite, let's remember that I'm the one who has control of an alicorn." Negative Celestia said.

I smiled as I said, "And I have control of all of time." And that was when the battle began.


	8. Losing the Battle

Negative Celestia made the first move by shooting at me with some beams. I defended myself by taking some clocks out of the time stream that were on my side and blocked the beams with them. I then threw the clocks at her to try and hit her. Negative Celestia obliterated them with more beams and then fired at me again. I formed a wall of clocks in front of me to block the beams. I had an idea and pulled the wall of clocks down. I sent them flying after her and flew behind them.

While she was distracted by the clocks, I opened a time hole behind her and flew straight into her. Negative Celestia and I both tumbled through and landed back in our time. We were in front of Canterlot castle, only seconds after we had tumbled through Negative Celestia's portal.

"Nice trick," Negative Celestia said. "Too bad it will be your last."

"I'm not worried," I responded. "After all, I have all the time in the world." Then Twilight and Tina ran out of the castle. They both looked surprised to see me, but got over that initial shock and ran over to help me.

"Stay back!" I warned them, but I didn't need to. There was some aura that Negative Celestia and I were emitting that caused them to stay back. Maybe an earth pony like me couldn't sense it, but with them being unicorns, it must have been extremely powerful.

"Just go get the elements of harmony and stop Nightmare Moon. I'll handle Negative Celestia." I said. They both looked like they were about to argue, until I opened up time holes underneath of Negative Celestia and me, pulling us back into the vortex. Twilight and Tina both looked surprised and stood there for a few seconds before continuing to get the other elements.

Negative Celestia and I continued to battle inside of the vortex. I dodged attacks and fired my own, but it was clearly an even battle. No matter how many beams were fired, no matter how many clocks were thrown, we were evenly matched. That is, until she got me with a lucky shot.

One of the many flying beams made it past my wall of clocks and hit me straight in the eye, blinding my left eye. Negative Celestia took this as an opportunity to take me out. She fired beams out of her horn as fast as she could, which was really fast. None of the beams missed me, and when Negative Celestia stopped firing at me, I was barely hanging on. My body was covered in scars and cuts that were bleeding profusely. I could barely see out of my right eye, but what I saw worried me.

Negative Celestia was charging up her magic, which was coming together to form a ball. Once that was all charged and finished, she fired it at me. I racked my brain trying to find a way to avoid it, but there was nothing I could do. If I opened a time hole it would drain the last of my energy and I would pass out. But then I got the idea.

I put all of my concentration into the making of a time hole. This particular time hole was different than the other ones that I had made. This one folded around me, enclosing me in a sphere. The ball of magic would still hit me, but I had a feeling that my plan would work. Seconds before I lost consciousness, I pushed the hourglass necklace and the phial of sand through the time hole. Then, my eyes slowly closed as the ball of magic came in contact with me. The magic was so powerful, that even my particles separated. My last thought before this occurred was, 'I hope this works.'


	9. Coming Back and Leaving Again

**Third Person:**

Twilight and Tina were still running to Ponyville when the hourglass necklace and phial of sand fell in front of them.

"These are Tie Dye's things." Tina said as she picked them up.

"Do you think that this means…" Twilight began.

"No, I'm sure he's fine. Nothing bad ever happens to him while he's on a case." Tina interrupted. They then continued to run towards Ponyville. Neither of them noticed the dust that settled behind them in a neat pile. The dust then began to swirl in the wind and take shape. Eventually everything settled and the dust was in the form of a pony. The form then began to gallop after the two mares.

Twilight and Tina quickly made it back to Ponyville, and they found that the quarantine, along with the guards, was gone. Wasting no time, the two ran through Ponyville gathering the other elements of harmony. Within minutes, everyone was gathered together, and they were all discussing a plan when the dust finally caught up to them.

At first, the mares were shocked at what they were looking at, dust in the form of a pony that was able to move. Then Tina noticed something about the form.

"Tie Dye," She asked. The form nodded and pointed at the necklace that was around her neck. Tina understood and took off the necklace and handed it to the form. Once the form had it in its hand, the dust was sucked into the hourglass. All of the mares watched the hourglass for a few minutes before it began to glow. A whirlwind of dust flew out of it and became the form of Tie Dye. Once that had finished, the dust began to become flesh. Then there was fur and color. Then Tie Dye was back to normal.

**Back to First Person:**

I coughed up dust and some sand, which cleared out my lungs; bad idea. Once my lungs were clear, I could breathe: and that hurt, a lot. I began to scream in pain, after all, I was still in the same shape that I was before, except more alert.

Both Tina and Twilight ran over to help me, but when they tried to support me with their hooves it hurt even worse.

I was barely able to say, "Hand me the phial." Tina handed me the phial of sand and I poured it into the hourglass. As the sand trickled down, a golden aura began to surround me and my wounds began to slowly heal. Before the last grains of sand could reach the bottom of the hourglass, I turned it onto its side before draining the sand back into the phial. Then only problem was that there hadn't been enough time for it to heal my eye. I pulled an eye patch out of one of my pockets and placed it over my eyes.

"Why do you have that?" Tina asked.

"I just healed lethal wounds with nothing more than an hourglass and a phial of sand and you're wondering why I have an eye patch in my pocket?" I asked.

"Yes, I am." She answered.

I merely shrugged my shoulders and said, "Now that we're all together, we need to go and stop the Negativity before its plans succeed. Of course we're going to need to get back to Canterlot as fast as we can." A little more of the golden aura began to circle me. "Would anybody like a quick teleport?" No one had any time to answer because I quickly used the aura to teleport us all.

We all reappeared in front of the Canterlot castle. Everyone looked each other over to see if they were ok, before I said, "You all brought the elements with you, right?" Each of the mane six nodded and pulled out the elements before putting them on. "Let's go in there." I said.

I led the group into the castle. The inside had changed since the last time we had been in there. Furniture was floating around and the stained glass portraits had changed to that of negative images. We kept walking through the castle, getting closer to the throne room where our opponents were waiting. It took longer than usual considering the changes, but we eventually made it to the door. It took all of us to push it open, but we made it through eventually.

Nightmare Moon noticed us first. "They have returned." She said.

"What's the plan?" Tina asked.

"The elements take care of Nightmare Moon while I take care of Celestia." I answered.

"Then what do I do?"

"Try not to get hurt." Before Tina could argue any further, I shouted, "Charge!" The elements charged at Nightmare Moon while I ran at Celestia. I took out the hourglass and began to put it around my neck, but Celestia blasted it with her magic and it flew across the room. I looked at her and she had a twisted grin on her face. I rushed her anyway, but my eye put me at an even bigger disadvantage. I was able to dodge magical attacks, but I would always be so close that my skin would slightly singe.

Everything was going like this for a while, until I heard Twilight shout, "It's not working!" This caused me to lose my focus for a long enough time that Celestia landed a hit on me. The hit was strong enough that I flew across the room and hit the wall.

I stood up slowly and asked, "What's wrong?"

"The elements won't work!"

I thought about what this meant. We couldn't stop either Nightmare Moon or Celestia without the elements. "Retreat!" I shouted. We all turned to run, but I keeled over. Tina walked over and wrapped one of my hooves over her shoulder to help me walk. All eight of us ran out of the room and out of the castle. We only stopped once we reached the sight of my old shelter.


	10. Fixing the Elements

"Explain it to me again." I said to Twilight.

"We were wearing the elements and I began to charge the magic to activate them, but I felt something blocking the magic. I couldn't activate the elements because of this blockage." She responded.

"So there was something blocking the magic from going into the elements of harmony." I said to myself. "The elements of harmony are pure positivity, so the only thing that could stop or at least rival them is pure negativity. The negativity must have left a part of itself inside of Twilight, maybe even the rest of the elements as well."

"That's great to know, but how do we fix it?" Tina asked.

I smiled at her and said, "Everyone remembers the first time that Trixie came to Ponyville, right?" Everyone nodded; they didn't need to be reminded. "I think that we need to gain as much positivity for you six as we can, and to do that, we need to put on a show."

* * *

A few hours later and we had a stage set up in the middle of Ponyville with a huge crowd. "Does everypony remember what their supposed to do?" I questioned. Everypony else nodded and I said, "Alright then, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, you two are up first." Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked out onto the stage and were met with a wave of cheer from the audience.

They started to work together with the act, Rainbow Dash flying through Applejack's lasso in plenty of intricate ways. And then, Applejack grabbed a red cape and treated Rainbow Dash as though she was a bull. This went along for a few minutes before Rainbow Dash began to fly upwards. Turning in midair, she angled herself in just the right way for a Sonic Rainboom. Aiming for the cape that Applejack was now holding in front of herself, Rainbow Dash began to pick up speed. Then there was a burst of color as Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier. Applejack had little time to dodge out of the way, but did so before getting hit. This encouraged the crowd to give a cheer for the two mares.

The next two to go onto the stage were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Almost immediately Pinkie Pie pulled her confetti canon out of what seemed to be thin air. Fluttershy flew into the air very tentatively. Pinkie Pie took aim at Fluttershy and began to fire confetti cannonballs. Fluttershy dodged each of these with grace, causing the crowd to gasp in wonder. However, Fluttershy eventually lost the grace and was clipped in the wing. This was planned completely, and Tina and I ran out onto the stage. We formed a net with our hooves and caught the falling mare. This earned everypony on stage a round of applause. Our appearance was to clear any negativity out that Tina and I might have had.

Next, Rarity and Twilight walked onto the stage. They each performed their own magic tricks. Rarity would make floating creations made of gems while Twilight would perform really high level spells. The crowd was riveted to the performance. To finish this performance, Twilight performed a spell on Rarity. This was the spell that gave Rarity butterfly wings. This made the crowd cheer wildly as the mares went backstage.

"All we have to do now is go out there and bow." I said. The mares nodded and walked out onto the stage and bowed to the audience. I stayed backstage, never one to soak in the lime light.

Once everything was cleaned up, we decided to perform a test to make sure that the elements would work now. Twilight and friends put on the elements and Twilight began to charge the magic. At first it seemed like it wouldn't work, but after a few minutes the elements powered up and the harmony was released.

"Those two don't stand a chance now that the elements are working." I said. We all got into a circle and high hooved. Tina and Twilight seemed to blush slightly when my hoof touched theirs.


	11. In the Hands of the Enemy

After running back to the castle, we all stood outside of the castle's doors. Once they were open, the eight of us ran inside. Nothing much had changed since the last time that we were here. Random objects were still flying around the room without a specific direction. We simply walked back towards the throne room and hoped that nothing would try and stop us along the way.

We released our breaths as we reached the door without any troubles. However, we knew that our troubles were not yet over as we still had two substantial enemies waiting for us to return. Opening the doors, we ran into the room and looked around. The first thing that we noticed was that neither alicorn was in the room. A quick look around gave nothing away immediately, so this would take some closer observation.

Then something big hit me, I didn't have the hourglass. I had to have left it there in our last assault. "Everypony look for a necklace with an hourglass attached to it."

"Why should we?" Rainbow Dash asked me.

"How many times have I helped you?" I asked. When she didn't answer, I said, "I thought so; now help me find my necklace." We all began to search, but none of us yielded any results. Until after ten minutes of searching, Tina said that she had found something.

We all walked over to her to see what she had found. Lying at the ground in front of her was the chain that had been connected to the hourglass. "They must have taken it." I sighed.

"What's so important about that necklace anyway?" Applejack asked me.

"If any of you needed to know information like this, I would have told you already. However, since I haven't told you yet, none of you need to know, nor will any of you ever need to know." I said indignantly.

"Calm down, Tie Dye," Twilight said, "she was just asking a question." Not answering, I turned away from the others and looked towards the throne thinking, _If they have the hourglass then who knows how long it will be until they find out how to use it._ I reached towards my neck and clutched at the phial of sand that hung there. I knew that once they realized that they needed the sand, they would come after me.

Then the air in the room began to grow cold. Looking up, I could see the cause of this drop in temperature. Before anypony else could look up and see this, I started rushing them to the door. "Well, it seems that we can't find anything around here, best we get going."

"But we haven't even attempted to search for any clues." Tina complained.

"This place is too dangerous for us to stay around here for too long, there's no need to stay for too long." I replied, trying to push everyone out of the room. Once they were out the door, I threw it shut and barred the door so they couldn't get back in. After that, I slowly turned around and faced the throne again. There was some banging on the door and I could hear some shouting from the other side.

"Deciding to leave your friends out of this, Tie Dye?" the figure from above said. "Even though the only way that you could hope to come close to stopping us with the elements of harmony, which you just locked away."

"The fact that you're here without fear when the elements are working once again is disturbing. You two have another way to stop them, and I didn't want to risk anything." I responded.

"Yet you didn't run as well, why?"

"Stay as a distraction, find something that could give away your plan, maybe I wasn't even thinking when I did this, but in the end, it gives them some time to get away."

"They are still trying to open the door; they aren't trying to run away."

"They will once they know that I'm no longer in here."

"And how will they know that?" The figure asked.

"They'll know when I give the signal." I said, louder so that the ponies outside of the room could hear me.

"What kind of signal, a verbal one?"

"No, not something verbal," I said, my voice getting louder, "it's going to be a crashing sound." Looking towards the window I continued, "Maybe the sound of a window breaking."

"I see your plan, but it won't work. You will lose your life before you could save anyone!"

"Then why am I still alive now? You could have taken me out easily throughout this whole conversation. I know that you have my hourglass and that you need me to help you to get it to work." I said. I got into a crouching position; the door behind me no longer muffled shouts, but pleas to get me to just leave the room. I smiled as though I had lost my mind and began to run straight at the windows. I heard the figure behind me leap from the ceiling and give chase, but I had gotten a head start. The window made a loud crash as I barreled straight into and through it.

Shards of glass cut me as I began my decent through the sky. Of course, I picked the window facing the cliff, giving me a longer distance to fall. I knew that there could be two different outcomes, the first being that the figure rescue me before I hit the ground. The second outcome was that I would no longer be an equation in this case. I closed my eyes as I fell, not caring which outcome occurred at this point. The wind rushed into my face and relaxed me as I fell.

Then I felt something wrap around my frame and yank me up. I opened my eyes as I discovered which outcome had caught me. Looking up, I saw Nightmare Moon, none too happy, carrying me as she flew. I sighed as she flew me away. I had been captured, but the elements and Tina had not, which was all that mattered. I looked back at the castle as I was flown away. All I could think about was if the others had gotten out alright.

**A/N: Hello all the people who are checking after all this time. I know that it's been awhile, but I've been busy. So accept that reason because I said it, or don't, I don't care. I'm going to try and start updating this story more, so expect more chapters soon.**


	12. A New Investigation

**Tina's Point of View**

Once the glass had broken we all ran away from the castle, hoping to escape whatever it was that had been talking to Tie Dye. I could feel tears flow from my eyes as I thought about what he had done. Either that thing had gotten him or he had fallen to his death.

Once we were outside of the castle, all of us stopped by a café and sat outside. After the drinks we got some drinks, we all just kind of looked at each other. As far as we could tell, Tie Dye had just given his life to protect ours. Nobody wanted to speak after that.

Until Fluttershy, of all ponies, was the one to break the silence. "Is he really… dead?"

I answered her, "I don't know. I've worked with him for so long that it's hard for me to imagine him being gone." Then that was all we said until we finished our drinks, when we said our farewells and went our separate ways. I was on the way back to my house when I passed Tie Dye's office/home. I couldn't stop myself from walking inside for what I thought would be the last time.

The door opened without any trouble. _He forgot to lock it again._ I smiled as this thought went through my mind. I walked in and began to look around at the familiar sights. I remembered late nights of working on a case, waiting for the next case, and even just talking with each other.

Then the tears began to flow once again. It was hard to walk around here without Tie Dye being around. I had to get some clarity with this. If Tie Dye really was dead, then his body would most likely be at the bottom of the cliff. Maybe if I saw him there, I'd be able to move on. It didn't seem to be the best plan, but I didn't know what else to do.

So with that thought in my mind, I took a train back to Canterlot. With all the traveling I had been doing, I was getting tired, but there was no way that I would be able to sleep without knowing Tie Dye's fate.

A long train ride later, and I had finally made it to Canterlot. Even being here brought back so many memories. All of the cases that lost Tie Dye his good reputation around here. It was hard to find a pony around here that did like him.

It wasn't very long before I got close to the spot where Tie Dye would have fallen. Feeling sleep deprived and on the brink of breaking down, I walked to the spot. It was a large field, with short grass. There was nothing in the field.

I looked up towards the castle to make sure that I was in the correct spot. I was. So then where was the body?

It was then that I heard rustle in the grass behind me. Tensing up, I quickly spun around to see who it was. Standing behind me was Twilight Sparkle, and I assumed that she here for the same reason that I was.

Before she could say anything to me, I said, "The body isn't here."

A look of surprise came across her face. "Did you search the whole area?" Twilight asked after a few seconds.

"I don't need to." I answered. I pointed at the glass lying around in the grass and said, "The glass made it down in this area, the body would have as well. Plus, there doesn't seem to be any blood in the area. If he truly fell here, there would be some pretty obvious evidence."

"So you mean he's still alive?" Twilight asked me.

"He could have landed on the cliff itself, but the body isn't down here." I answered. "Let's also remember that thing that was in the throne room talking to him. Whatever it was could have taken him."

"We could get Rainbow Dash to go and search the side of the cliff and check the throne room for any clues about what happened in there."

I smiled and said, "It's what Tie Dye would do." And with that we both turned around and began to walk away. It was time to start another investigation and find out what Tie Dye's fate truly was.

**A/N:** **Bit of a mix up there huh? I can bet that all of you weren't expecting that, but I won't because that would be stupid. I have decided that for the moment each chapter will be different. It will go from Tina to Tie Dye, and vice versa. Next chapter will be Tie Dye, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for the support, Agent out.**


	13. Help Me to Help You

**Tie Dye's Point of View**

Next time I woke up it was in a cell. After shaking my head to try and wake myself up, I took a look around. The cell didn't seem to be made of concrete, but some surface that seemed like a rock. The bars keeping me in were metal and I didn't even have a bed.

"Is anypony there?" I called out.

I was answered by a malicious laugh that was followed by, "He finally wakes up."

I looked through the bars and could only see darkness. "Who's there?" I questioned.

Celestia walked right up to the bars so that I could see her. She was still infected by the negativity. "Welcome to the comfortable part of the prison."

Looking around I thought, '_This is comfort?',_ but I said, "Thanks for the accommodations. What exactly is it that you want from me?"

"As you probably already know, we have the hourglass from your necklace. I've seen what you can do with it and decided that that power would benefit my plan. I'm going to ask you nicely to tell me how to use it." Celestia said. "Tell me."

"I appreciate the niceness in your tone," I said sarcastically, "but I'm going to have to decline."

"I'm afraid that you have no power in this situation and can't decide whether you want to tell me or not because you will."

"Or what, you'll move me to the torture cell? You'll use your powers on me? You'll threaten death even though if I were dead then the secret will be just about lost. You could find clues, but I would probably have left false ones. You need me and you know it."

Celestia put on a horrible smile. "Using my powers on you won't kill you, but they will injure you greatly. And then when I finish casting a heal spell on you, I can do it again. I can do it over and over until you tell me how to use the hourglass. You can be tortured until the end of your days unless you tell me."

"And when you get tired? Everyone has their limits, and eventually Celestia will reach hers. You have successfully taken over two princesses, but you have missed two powerful beings. There's still Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadence. Until you have all of them, you can't torture me until I die, you can only do it for so long until you get tired, and then Nightmare Moon would get tired, until both of you are tired and you have no one left to torture me and I could recover easily."

The smile never left her face as she said, "And you think giving me this information will save you?"

"I think giving you this information can help both of us." I said while returning a smile. "It can help you torture me and I wouldn't have to look at your ugly face any more than I had to."

The corners of her mouth twitched as she said, "Alright then, you're recommendations shall be seen to. For now, you will spend your time waiting in the comfort cell until we are ready for you."

So Celestia walked away and left me there. I had no bed, I had nothing to do, I had nothing but time. And then I looked down and realized that they hadn't taken my vest. _I may not have anything to come into contact with anyone,_ I thought, _but at least I have some equipment._ I began to formulate a plan, nothing that could get me out, but something that could help keep me from losing my mind.

So I kept busy when I thought that no one was watching, which was most of the time. I took samples of the rock even though I had no means to study it. I took notes about the times they would feed me and the times they would visit me. I did most everything that I would have done had I been trying to break in.

Eventually they started to visit me more often. They would brag about how well everything was going and mock me, but I didn't care. In a way, they were helping me to keep going, fueling something inside of me. It felt like days had passed, but it had only been one.

The next day Celestia and Nightmare Moon came and visited me together. "What's the occasion?" I asked.

"Your idea has been used to its full potential. We have taken Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadence." Celestia told me. Then two more faces appeared, each one easily recognizable as the two mentioned ponies. However, Cadence was just as gray as Celestia was.

"It took us a while," Celestia said while gesturing to herself, "but we found and retrieved them."

"What do you mean we, you only pointed to yourself." I questioned.

"We as in what you call the Negativity. We had to split up and find them."

I smiled with the new information that I had gained and said, "So what now?"

All four of the ponies smiled simultaneously as Celestia said, "We are going to the torture chamber."

My smile faltered as they opened my cell magically and forced me out of the cell. I really began to worry once they brought me into the darkness and I couldn't see my hoof in front of my face.

The four alicorns walked me to someplace that felt extremely cold. Then I was placed in a chair as the alicorns each took a deep breath. Only seconds later the room was lit by beams of magic being shot by the alicorns. It appeared that my first torture session was supposed to leave a mark on me. In the few seconds that I had, I looked around the room. The walls were gray and there were no windows. The room didn't even appear to have an entrance/exit.

Then the magic hit me. I screamed in pain, but no others could hear me and Nopony else in the room seemed to care. However, I felt a wink link in the bunch. I couldn't trace it, but I could feel it. That is, until I lost the feeling in my body. That was when I blacked out, the beams still hitting me all at once.


	14. The Hunt is On

**Back to Tina**

We searched the throne room as Rainbow Dash flew around the cliffs. We had been searching for a while and hadn't found much. I was beginning to lose hope at finding anything when Rainbow Dash flew in.

"I didn't find any trace of a dead body." She said.

"We haven't found anything around here either." Twilight told her.

"I just hope that we don't walk into any bloodstains, it would ruin my manicure." Rarity said.

Pinkie bounced about the room while she wore a 'detective hat'. "There's nothing up on these shelves!" Pinkie called out in a tone that sounded over joyed.

I sighed and looked at the window, when I saw our first clue. "Look at the window." I told everypony. Once they had all turned their heads, I continued, "Look at how the window is broken. Tie Dye wasn't nearly big enough to make that big of a hole in the window. And look at the walls at the sides; they've been hit by something."

"But what could have done it?" Applejack asked.

"The two marks in the wall are symmetrical. They were broken by the same thing. We can only assume that whatever was in this room broke the wall." I answered.

"That would mean that the pony in this room was a pegasus, and a big one at that." Twilight reasoned. "Possibly even an alicorn. And the voice that we could hear, it sounded familiar, not Celestia but somepony else."

Then the six ponies looked at each other and exclaimed at the same time, "Nightmare Moon!"

"So Nightmare Moon took Tie Dye." I mumbled to myself. I looked back at the window and then noticed another clue. "Has anypony else noticed that the sun hasn't set in a day or two?" The looks on their faces showed me that they hadn't noticed.

"What does it mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It means that Celestia hasn't moved it while in this state; and Nightmare Moon hasn't been able to put up the moon, which was her goal last time." I said. "But why is it that the sun is still in the same position?"

"Maybe there's something there." Pinkie said with excitement in her voice.

"Maybe," I said, "who knows? It would be best to go and check it out."

So we all left the castle and began to follow the sun, hoping to find something there.

**A/N: Sorry for the smaller chapter, but it was kind of hard to write this one. Anyway, I have gotten an idea for the bonus that I will do for this story. Instead of me making something up, I thought that you, my readers, could write it. I'm asking you to submit ideas to me, and I will try and mesh them all together and create the bonus chapter. This chapter will be the second to last chapter, so it won't be out for a while, but I can't do it without your help, so thanks in advance.**


	15. Assembling the Team

**Tie Dye**

I was locked back up in my cell when they were finished torturing me. After that first experience, I thought that I would be ready for the next one. I didn't know that I would be tortured once every hour. Every time I had nearly recovered back to full strength they took me back down.

However, with the regular torturing I was able to figure out just who the weak link was. I began to formulate a plan that might have been able to help me escape. I learned the cycle that they would use to guard me. Every hour, the one that would torture me next would guard my cell. None of them would talk to me, no matter how hard I tried. However, Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis always seemed just about to respond just as soon as the hour was up.

I had identified the weak link to be Chrysalis. The other alicorns were hopped up on chaos energy while there wasn't much hatred or love around for Chrysalis to feed on. I decided that telling her this would probably give her mistrust and maybe even put her on my side.

So the next time that Chrysalis guarded my front door I began to speak to her. "Do you ever get tired of just sitting here and making sure that I can't go anywhere when I can't go anywhere?" Chrysalis just sat there, not looking at me. "Are you made because you haven't been able to feed? I've noticed that hatred and love are mostly missing around here."

"We are not supposed to talk." Chrysalis finally said.

"Who said that, the corrupt leader of your group? Has she even told you anything about the plan?"

"I have learned of the long time goal."

"But you don't know the plan to get there? All of those alicorns are hopped up on negativity and chaos energy while you're still at the same power. How do you know that this plan doesn't involve the rest of them getting rid of you?" I asked. Chrysalis sat there, not answering. The silence that approached was obviously one of thought.

Eventually she said, "It's time for your torture." Chrysalis opened my cage and led me out to the torture room. I was once again strapped to the chair and I had to face Chrysalis as she began to charge up a spell. I braced myself once the beam was cast towards me, but it didn't hurt when it hit me.

"I'm pretending to torture you so we can talk securely." She said.

I smiled, my plan had worked. "We're going to have to work together." I said.

"Fine with me, but we need to make a deal first."

"Is it that you don't trust me? I've probably already given you more information than Celestia has."

"If the elements of harmony show up, I want you to protect me from them."

"That's all that you want? Ok, but we can't do this alone. We're going to need another alicorn for this, and I know just the one."

Eventually I pretended to pass out once again, just in case anyone was watching, and Chrysalis brought me back to my cell. I got up after ten minutes and checked who was guarding me. It was Cadence. I knew that I couldn't reason with her because of the negativity that had taken her mind. This meant that I couldn't reason with Celestia, but it was mainly because she was the leader of this operation. That left only one alicorn to get turned to my side.

Nightmare Moon would be perfect, she's close to Celestia in all of this and nopony would suspect her. All I would probably have to do to turn her would be mentioning the sun and the moon and inquiring if everlasting darkness has occurred yet. My plan was forming and my mind racing as I began to wonder what the outcome of all of this would be.


	16. Finding Each Other Part 1

**Tina**

We traveled on the train and got as close to the area under the sun as we could. It had been a long ride, and I could feel sleep coming, but I couldn't stop now, especially not when I didn't have a clue where Tie Dye was. After the long ride, we had to walk even further, just to come upon a lake.

After looking up, I said, "This should be the spot."

"There's nothing here." Rainbow Dash said.

"There has to be something here. It's our only lead." I said desperately. We all just kind of stood around. Hours passed, and most of the others went home, having to take care of things. Eventually, it was only Twilight and me.

It was awkward at first, just sitting there without talking, until she broke the silence. "How do we know if he's even here?"

"We don't know, but we have no other leads, this is the only thing that we can do." I answered.

"We don't even know if he's alive."

"They need him for something, that's why they saved him from his fall back at the castle."

"How are we supposed to know that? He could have hit the ground and they could have cleaned up the mess. Or they could have gotten the wanted information and then killed him."

"He's been in positions such as this before, I'm sure that he's fine."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know ok!" I snapped. "I'm scared out of my mind that one of the ponies that I like the most in the world is missing and possibly dead! I'm sitting here trying not to jump into the water and swim to the bottom just to check if he's there! I feel lost without him, and I just want him back."

Then there was a rumbling sound. The water grew disturbed and something began to rise. After a minute or two, a base had risen out of the water. Wasting no time, Twilight and I ran inside to see if this was the place.

There were many corridors and twists and turns. We took random turns, hoping that we were going the right way. Before long we hear a loud explosion and something came hurtling towards us. The figure crashed against the back wall and slowly got back up, covered in cuts and bruises. I gasped when I saw who it was.

"Tie Dye!" I shouted.

He looked over at the two of us and said in disbelief, "How did you find me?"

* * *

**A/N: The team has reunited, but how did Tie Dye get in this mess? Find out in the next chapter of ****Things Look Bleak****.**


	17. Finding Each Other Part 2

**Tie Dye**

An hour after I had recruited Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon became my guard. I had just been tortured by Celestia, so I wasn't exactly feeling well. However, I expected that I had the strength to try and fool Nightmare Moon.

"Hello Princess Luna, or do you prefer Nightmare Moon right now?" I began.

"You will stop talking, now." Nightmare Moon answered.

"I'm just trying to start a conversation. Do any of you do that, just sit around and talk, or do they do that while you're guarding me?"

"I told you to stop talking."

"Answer this Luna; is the moon in the sky? Has eternal darkness finally risen, has the sun even set yet?"

"No."

"Is everything that's going on around here going the way that you wanted it to?"

"No."

"Then it looks like the two of us see eye to eye."

"I am on the other team, how can we see eye to eye?"

"You and I both want different things than Celestia. Maybe, just maybe, we could work together."

Nightmare Moon seemed to think it over before turning to face me and saying, "Yes, we can work together."

I smiled as I said, "Good, I have one other contact in your little group. Chrysalis has also agreed to help, so you two are going to need to break me out of this cell. Once that happens, I'll get us out of here, meet up with Tina, and form a plan that will stop Celestia. Everybody wins!"

"Is that all that you'll need us to do?"

"No, there's one more thing that I'll need you two to do for me, I'll need you to grab the hourglass for me."

Nightmare Moon nodded and said, "It will be done. Chrysalis and I will convince Celestia to allow us to guard you together, and then we will break you out."

* * *

So I went through Nightmare Moon's torture, another hour, and another torture before Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were my guards. They produced a key from what seemed like thin air and let me out of the cell. They then pulled the hourglass, also out of this air, and gave it to me. I smiled and put it into one of my pockets before saying, "Follow me."

We set off in one direction, the way being lit by the magic of the two alicorns' horns. Everything was going well, until we went about five yards away from the cell. Celestia appeared in front of us, wearing a cold smile.

Without thinking, I pulled out the hourglass and poured the sand inside. This action proved to be a great mistake. I was grabbed from each side by Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis. I struggled to get free, but my attempts were in vain. Celestia walked up to me slowly, savoring the moment. She plucked the hourglass from my hooves and pulled out the real one. Each grain of sand was poured from the fake hourglass into the real one.

A surge of power rushed from the hourglass into Celestia. Once that finished, Celestia's presence seemed to grow even more terrifying.

"Let him go." Her voice boomed. The alicorns at my side obeyed and let go of me. "Prepare for more torture."

"Is that the best line that you've got?" I asked. Celestia then sent out a beam that was bright enough to blind me. This beam hit me head on. An explosion went off in front of me and I was blasted backwards, straight through a few walls. I saw two figures as I flew back, and then I quickly slammed into a wall. I slowly climbed to my hooves, feeling pain rush through my body.

I heard somepony say, "Tie Dye!"

I looked over in the direction the voice had come from and saw that the two figures I had seen were Twilight and Tina.

With disbelief in my voice, I said, "How did you find me?"


End file.
